May the Force be with you. Charlie turns 7.

The birthday boy on his birthday with his best buddy.

 We did A LOT of celebrating this year for Charlie's birthday.  We had 3 separate events and they were ALL so much fun!  Daddy was unfortunately out of town on Charlie's birthday but Nana came over for dinner, hot dogs per the boys request and cake from Casa Dolce...yum!

Then the following Saturday we went all out.  First we had a handful of school friends over for a mega STAR WARS party.  All boys and one very sweet little girl :)

I made her these cute little Leiah buns (thanks Christina for the idea!!)

Trent made the coolest jet packs out of 2 liter bottles and light sabers out of foam and colored duct tape.  They were a HUGE hit!

We started the party by building spaceships out of LEGOS which the kids were more then happy to do and probably would of kept at it for longer if I didn't have an agenda and time constraints.

Then we headed them downstairs to an obstacle course, ie Jedi Training.  They had to jump through hot lava,




and then climb over an galactic asteroid (2 chairs covered in a grey table cloth), and then crawl through the slimy green swap (crawl through a tunnel that was covered with a green table cloth).  The kids loved it!  Then they headed back upstairs to design their Jedi wrist bands.  I used an old roll of wrapping paper and cut it into bracelets.  I spray painted some old wooden blocks gold and cut out the lets JEDI in foam and made my own stamps.  The kids stamped with ink, JEDI on their wrist bands and then decorated them with stars.

Now they were true Jedi's and had to return to the basement and battle the Stormtroopers that had invaded our home. 

I drew Stormtrooper faces on white helium balloons and Trent taped them to the basement floor.  The kids went NUTS!!!

Even Daddy had a good time!

Then it was time for cake, presents and for all little Jedi's to go home.

We were awaken bright and early by Tommy who was dressed in his Sunday school clothes, v-neck sweater on backwards and all, which he insisted on wearing backwards the entire day.  When asked why he was so dressed up he simply said with his shy little grin, "I wanted to look good for the party".  Adorable, Thomas, you are adorable!!

Then came round 3!  That same afternoon, call us crazy, we had our family and family-like friends over for our traditional birthday party.

Darth Vader even showed up!  Tommy took one look at her and said "Nana!"....it was so funny!

We had a Darth Vader pinata

The kids made paper R2D2s and Galaxy Playdough (black homemade playdough and they added glitter to it)

And then we had to have cake AGAIN!

Light Saber cupcakes

C3PO Hydro-Oil

 Trent made a lot of really cool graphics for the party.  He made the water bottle covers, the signage for the center piece, Edible Ewoks that were used with gummie bears as a favor and a light saber sign for light saber favors that were pretzels dipped in red and blue chocolate.  He also made the invitation and the sign for our Yoda Soda, green sherbert and 7up.

I totally cheated on the cake this year.  With everything else that we did to prepare, I just wasn't into making a big cake.  So the night before the party I called the local market and went and bought an undecorated cake straight from their freezer.  They sold me a bucket of frosting and I was off.  Unfortunately, they didn't give me enough frosting to cover anything but the top.  Thankfully, I had left over grey frosting from the cupcakes and a can of chocolate ready made frosting in the pantry.  Tada!!! Charlie picked Anakin's Skywalkers flying machine to put on top, I threw miniature R2D2s and his friends around the cake and called it a day.

I think that Trent and I had a lot of fun putting all of this together for Charlie.  But the most important thing was that Charlie had a great birthday surrounded by old and new friends and people that love him.

I can not believe that our boy, our baby, is 7 years old!!

Dearest Charlie,

We love you beyond the moon and back.  You are the sweetest, funniest, most loving boy and we are blessed to have been chosen to be your family.

Happy Birthday Charlie Barley Bear!

Christmas Program at Tommy's school

Reading the Night Before Christmas

Anxiously waiting for Santa, ie hand in mouth because he is SO excited

When asked what they wanted for Christmas all the kids said a "surprise", I think they were nervous and just followed what the first kid said.  Tommy wasn't going to be a "follower" oh, no, he was going to make sure that Santa KNEW what he wanted the most....A Bobba Fett Costume :)

Penny wanted nothing to do with this Santa :)

For Grandpa

Dear Grandpa, 

If you think that you can keep me out of the "mix" of all you fellas for long, you are sadly mistaken.  I would like my own set of ear protection, in preferably pink or purple.  I suppose that black would do as well too.

And I am still waiting on that John Deere hat :)

Love,
Penny

Just some sentences..........

It is Sunday morning, we are not going to church today, instead we opted to catch up on some much needed sleep and stay in our pj's, cozy and warm in our little home.  Sometime we need days like this.  Days to just be together, have nothing on the "schedule".  To do projects around the house, or not.  To play video games to our hearts desire,  to read all the books in the baby basket without interruption, to lay cuddled on the couch together.

Outside is a winter wonderland.  The tree limbs are lined with fluffy snow and our foot prints from yesterdays "snow caterpillar" building are covered again with a blanket of the white stuff.  It is 8:21 and the sun is peaking from behind the school, making the trees sparkle.

Trent is asleep, I hear Penny stirring in her crib, talking to Pink Kitty most likely and my boys are wearing their homemade jet pack (that Daddy made!) and playing the part of fearless Jedi's.

The house is less then put together.  The dining room table is cluttered with cereal boxes for Chalrie's class Valentines Day craft,  a cupcake holder I bought to take in his birthday cupcakes to school, a water bottle, some jackets and my house binder.  Reminents of a puppet show are on the coffee table, from when Nana and the cousins were over last night.  There is probably 5 loads of laundry that needs to be washed and about 2 that need to be put away.  I still need to send out a box of Christmas gifts to our friends in Michigan and package up all of our online homeschooling supplies and computer to send back.  The beds need to be changed and the toy boxes in the dining room need to be gone through again.

Life is good and I am content.

Christmas Morn

This year we were at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Trent cooked a big meal on Christmas Eve and we went to service at church with Nana. It was fun to wrap presents in the late hours with Trent as we were both giddy with anticipation of Santa's arrival. We focus a lot on the true meaning of Christmas and we throughly celebrate the birth of our Saviour. But we also enjoy the excitement and whimsey of Santa and the loot he brings. We don't do a ton of presents in our home. The kids typically get one gift from Santa, one gift from their siblings and one or two gifts from us. We also do small stocking stuffers. Sometimes Trent and I exchange gifts and sometimes, like this year we both expressed larger items that we would like to have before Christmas (he wanted a flat screen tv and I wanted a family photo shoot), works for us!
 

The kids had so much fun looking at all the presents and figuring out which was there "Santa" present.  He usually brings the BEST. This year we had a dilemma.  Grandma and Grandpa Lydic asked what the boys wanted so I told them a few things that were on the "lists", however Tommy really only wanted one thing, a Bobba Fett costume.  They said they would get it for him and I figured we could find some other things that he would enjoy, win, win.  Well, on Christmas Eve there was discussion about how ONLY Santa could bring the costume because that is what Tommy had asked for when we visited Santa.  NO ONE else could bring, it HAD to come from Santa.  An emergency call was sent to Grandpa Lydic who chuckled and gave the ok for a present switch, and diverted a MAJOR catastrophe :)

We spent all morning in our pajamas and had a huge breakfast.  It was so fun to watch the kids enjoying their presents and playing nicely together.  Even Penny got into opening presents, it was precious and I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for our family and all the blessings we have been given.  My heart overflowed with love as I watched my dear sweet husband playing with our children, making us a lovely brunch and snuggled up on the couch with me drinking coffee and watching all the fun.  I am truly blessed on so many levels and thank our Heavenly Father.



And after all our fun at home we headed over to spend the afternoon with my sister and her family and my parents.  We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts with them and the cousins ran around like crazy maniacs and everyone dotted over Penny who decided to charm us all and take her first steps from Nana to Grandpa!  Man does she know the way to my Dad's heart :)

It was a truly wonderful Christmas and I think we all needed to make some new traditions and be together as a family.

Our Family, My Blessings

Photos by the adorable and talented Wendy of Blue Lily